The collapse was precipitated when the Tel Aviv airport demanded that the crew of Malév’s Thursday night flight pay hundreds of thousands of euros before allowing the plane to take off.

Malév held an emergency board meeting during the night, and decided to stop all flights permanently.

The alternative was to pay the invoice in Israel and not pay wages to employees, according to Népszabadság.

However, the board did not want to risk additional airports claiming immediate payment by withholding flights.

All but a few aircraft leased by Malév returned to owner ILFC’s base in Shannon, Ireland on Friday.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his weekly radio interview on Friday morning that a Hungarian national airline could still be established “if we can get rid of the skeletons of the past”.

Such an airline would be state-owned but investors are indispensable, he said. If there is an investor willing to operate a national airline profitably by risking his own money or at least by not losing money, then such a new company will be established, Orbán said."

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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